Question: Factor the following expression: $180x^2 - 5$
Solution: We can start by factoring a ${5}$ out of each term: $ {5}({36x^2} - {1})$ The second term is of the form ${a^2} - {b^2}$ , which is a difference of two squares so we can factor it as ${5}({a} + {b}) ({a} - {b})$ What are the values of $a$ and $b$ $ a = \sqrt{36x^2} = 6x$ $ b = \sqrt{1} = 1$ Use the values we found for $a$ and $b$ to complete the factored expression, ${5}({a} + {b}) ({a} - {b})$ So we can factor the expression as: ${5}({6x} + {1}) ({6x} - {1})$